So, the last time I was on a horse was when I was five. Why so long you ask? Getting thrown would have been one thing. Getting your foot caught in the stirrup and dangling upside down while your horse runs in circles is another thing all together. “Thankfully” I was too short to drag on the ground. Had we shown up, gotten on the horse and gone for a trail ride I would have been fine, but that’s not the way it happened. We got there, and they assigned us horses, we had is brush them, get their saddles on (the professionals did the bits), and get helmets. I was ready to crap my pants by the time we actually got on them, but I digress. This is really about camping with boy scouts!
So we pulled into our camp sit at dusk on Friday, and we didn’t get our Quesadilla dinner until after dark. No big deal, the moon was spectacularly bright.
We couldn’t really have had better weather; lows in the mid 50s, and highs in the low 80s. The only thing missing was my jacket. The following morning started at sunup (630am) because the boys wanted Bacon, Eggs, and Pancakes for breakfast. We had to be at the stable at 9am for horseback riding. We were only five minutes late.
As an aside; I hate it when the boys want pancakes. They are nothing but slow, messy carbohydrates.
The trail ride was as expected.
I think my horse, Cowhand, was pissed off about having to carry the fat guy. Repeatedly I got rubbed against trees, and taken through the tall grass. I love Chiggers, really; especially when they’re all over my legs. The ride lasted a little over and hour and everyone survived.
Lunch was sandwiches, and we set up dinner to cook in the sun.
We had two solar cookers. The professionally built one got up to 350 degrees and had three pounds of ground beef, diced onions, and chili seasoning in it. The other one was made by the scouts at a previous troop meeting out of cardboard, duct tape, and tinfoil. I don’t know how hot it got, but it did do an adequate job of warming up the beans. We heated the beans up in a black tin that came with another solar cooker the Scoutmaster didn’t bring along on this trip, but he did tell me that the manufacturer claimed that; “Food cooked with photons tastes better!”
While dinner was cooking we took a hike down the creek and let the boys, be boys.
All told we spent until dinner, about 4 hours, playing in the creek. The total walk was between two and three miles.
SNAKE!
I asked the boys what kind it was. They didn’t know, but wanted to pick it up anyway. So after I said no, several times, we talked about the fact the baby poisonous snakes can be more dangerous than the adults because they don’t withhold any venom. I have no idea if its true, but I didn’t want them to pick it up, and one lie was as good as another at that point.
Dinner was quick and easy. Chili and the leftover cheese from the quesadillas; since we used the solar cookers there was no cooking fire to deal with. Dinner took about 30 minutes from start to finish. Breakfast must have taken 2 full hours. Yeah for solar cookers!
So at seven o’clock I was ready to pass out. I actually went into my tent and laid down for 15-20 minutes before the bonfire.
That night based on the Scoutmaster’s suggestion the bonfire was lit at the top, instead of the bottom. What I fabulous idea! I do that all the time when I use my smoker at home, why it never crossed my mind to do for a bonfire escapes me. Anyway our bonfire lasted a good hour and a half. It wasn’t as big as a typical bonfire, but it gave us a steadier amount of heat and light. It also burned virtually smoke free. I assume because the wood got dried out properly as the fire burned its way down.
So at nine that night a strange thing happened. Two of the boys got up, and decided that it was time to go to bed. They were so tired they were falling asleep sitting up watching the bonfire. 30 minutes later we put the remains of the bonfire out, and all went to bed.
The boys all slept until 730 on Sunday morning.
